The King's Speech supporter Screen Yorkshire joins BFI in job cuts

Agency that helped awards favourite with locations says up to 15 of its 19 staff could lose their jobs; and BFI magazine's future is also under threat

Supporting role ... Colin Firth as King George VI in The King's Speech – Screen Yorkshire helped with locations such as Leeds' Elland Road stadium, which doubled as Wembley. Photograph: The Weinstein Company

Screen Yorkshire, which oiled the wheels of the film's shoot in the county, said that up to 15 of its 19 staff could be made redundant as part of a staffing review triggered by what its chief executive, Sally Joynson, called "challenging times".

A £10.2m contract to promote and support the regional film industry ends in March and will not be renewed by Yorkshire Forward, a regional development agency that is being axed in 2012. In November last year culture minister Ed Vaizey named Screen Yorkshire, founded in 2002, as one of eight agencies that were to be merged into a single new body called Creative England to represent regional film. The Yorkshire Evening Post reports, however, that Screen Yorkshire is exploring ways of existing as a self-contained, cost-effective organisation.

Director Tom Hooper was behind one of the agency's big hits, The Damned United, about Brian Clough's stint as manager of Leeds United, and returned to the region to shoot the London-set King's Speech. The opening scene, which takes place in Wembley stadium, was shot at Leeds' Elland Road stadium, with dummies from The Inflatable Crowd Company at Skipton filling out the crowd rather than extras.

Rachel McWatt, a spokesperson for Screen Yorkshire, says that in the past four years the body has won more than £82m in inward investment, created 1,086 jobs, supported 812 businesses and invested in the skills of 1,637 people. "We are at the end of the phone to find locations, crew and other support for people who are looking to film. The danger is that there will be no one to do that job and no one flying the flag for Yorkshire. A lot of crews and small companies rely on productions coming here."

Another big British film export of the last year, Four Lions, was also shot partly in the area, and produced by Warp Films, based in Sheffield, and a beneficiary of Screen Yorkshire funding.

At the time the BFI announced to the press that 37 people would lose their jobs; in a briefing to staff members, however, a figure of 75 redundancies was quoted. The discrepancy appears to have occurred as the figure released publicly takes into account five retirements, seven vacant posts which won't be filled, 10 posts under a pay dispute, as well as the appointment of 15 new positions.

Another BFI review, addressing the future of their magazine Sight & Sound, will be undertaken by the end of March. In a letter to BFI staffers, Nevill said: "Specialist magazines are struggling to compete with free online information and our magazine, whilst doing relatively well compared to many, is no different."

The results of the first consultation process have yet to be announced.